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Thread ID: 77058 2007-02-25 09:27:00 ASUS & BIOS update bk T (215) Press F1
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528062 2007-02-25 09:27:00 Unable to update the BIOS for this Asus A7Jc notebook. Took it to ASUS service centre and the technician told me that it's because the MBR (master boot record) of the Harddisk drive is faulty. He has to put in another HDD in order to flash the BIOS update. My orginal HDD has 2 partitions, C: & D: He further told me that in order to fix the problem, they have to reformat the whole Harddisk drive, both C: and D: will have to be reformatted.

I have no boot problem with this Asus notebook, however. I don't quite understand how the MBR affects the flashing of BIOS :confused: . Does it make any sense with what the technician said? As I am trying to avoid reinstalling and configuring everything from scratch.

Cheers
bk T (215)
528063 2007-02-25 12:01:00 ook it to ASUS service centre and the technician told me that it's because the MBR (master boot record) of the Harddisk drive is faulty. He has to put in another HDD in order to flash the BIOS update. My orginal HDD has 2 partitions, C: & D: He further told me that in order to fix the problem, they have to reformat the whole Harddisk drive, both C: and D: will have to be reformatted.

dunno where that fool got his training or info it's TOTALLy incorrect.......the bios has nothing whatsoever to do with the harddrive.....he's bullsh*tting you or simply doesn't have a clue.......either way I'd avoid that place........your bios can be updated without ANY harddrive installed........the info for the bios is kept on a chip on the motherboard........what kinda tech is that person ?......not a good one.....
drcspy (146)
528064 2007-02-25 20:00:00 What a cowboy.

One method of updating a BIOS is to boot off a floppy and flash it from that. What happens when you boot off a floppy? The hard drive doesn't even come into it. In fact you could remove it completely and still flash the BIOS.

Find a new tech.
And don't let them anywhere near your hard drive.
pctek (84)
528065 2007-02-25 21:56:00 Maybe he was talking about using the WinFlash Utiltity came with the laptop, which can be run in Windows environment. This is what I (and he) tried to flash the BIOS but failed to update it.

How do I flash the BIOS if there isn't any floppy disk drive in the laptop? I think most lapies nowadays don't have any FDDs.

Does it make sense that a damaged MBR cannot be repaired other than reformating it - the whole HDD, not just the OS partition? I really don't want to do a total reformating of my HDD, hours and hours of hardwork will be gone down the drain!

Cheers
bk T (215)
528066 2007-02-25 22:08:00 I wouldnt use the Windows flash util fullstop.

Some people have done it this way on a desktop (and succeeded), but others if it freezes (and the system doesnt support Crashfree BIOS), theyre screwed.

You could use a USB flash drive/pen.

BUT u have to make it bootable first, and with some kind of bootdisk like the files from bootdisk (www.bootdisk.com)
Speedy Gonzales (78)
528067 2007-02-25 22:57:00 Does it make sense that a damaged MBR cannot be repaired other than reformating it -

FixMBR from Recovery Console would do it.
pctek (84)
528068 2007-02-25 23:30:00 If the MBR is damaged, am I right to say that I'll have boot problems? Will I still be able to boot up the lapie? Other than unable to flash the BIOS with WinFlash Utl, my Asus notebook is functioning OK.

Just phoned the Asus Tech to ask him about this issue, he told me that there's no other option but to reformat the whole HDD if I so wish to flash the BIOS in the future! As it is still under warranty, I want to get it fixed - whatever the problem may be. But I really reluctant to get my HDD refomatted!

Advice, please.
bk T (215)
528069 2007-02-25 23:33:00 Well like someone has already said formatting the hdd has nothing to do with flashing the BIOS.

The only option u have, is to buy a USB flash drive/pen.

I take it you havent got version 300 as of 4/8/06? It looks like the previous was 206 as of 20/2/06.
Speedy Gonzales (78)
528070 2007-02-25 23:47:00 Why not get hold of a USB floppy drive and boot from that? Mackin_NZ (6958)
528071 2007-02-26 00:25:00 mate.......several of us here ARE techs and when we say the bios has nothign to do with the harddrive then you can be assured we are correct.......another way you could do it is to write a 'flash' to a cd then boot from cd to do it..... drcspy (146)
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